Meddlers In Time
by Samhainix
Summary: The Eighth Doctor is reunited with his former companion Ace (now Dorothée AKA Time's Vigilante) as they try and stop the web of time from being ripped apart by a callous force that wishes nothing more than to destroy the planet The Doctor loves most and then stab him in the hearts.
1. Chapter 1

The time winds battered Dorothée's motorcycle as she rode it through the vortex. This was all wrong, something was screwing with time. The mists of the vortex were almost bright red and if Dorothée squinted she could see... was that lightning? In the vortex that should be almost impossible. Dorothée set the vortex driver on her bike to locate the source of the disturbance, upgrading from the time hopper turned out to be a good idea after all.

The report came through, Earth and a city called Paris. One of Dorothée's usual haunts since she became Time's Vigilante, she really hoped it didn't turn out to be a future version of herself who decided to turn evil and hold the entire planet hostage. That would be really naff. Dorothée set spatial co-ordinates and was just about to set temporal when she looked in her wing mirror saw the last thing she ever expected to see again.

A big blue box hurtled toward Dorothée at tremendous speed and showed no sign of stopping. The engines of the blue box let out a roar that would send any nearby vortisaur running for its mummy and then the light at the top of the box exploded sending sparks just over Dorothée's head.

Inside the blue box, its pilot The Doctor was leaping from panel to panel on the TARDIS console. He tried locking on to the source of the time distortion but his old Type Forty was finding it hard to even admit the existence of the distortion. Nevertheless The Doctor programmed his ship to dematerialize inside the vortex at the precise point where the winds met the lightning, in theory the old girl should be able to ride the distortion to the point it originated from. He just had enough time to activate the controls before being flung into his comfy red chair, which in turn toppled over sending him onto the mahogany TARDIS floor.


	2. Chapter 2

The blue metropolitan police box stood tall on a mostly empty Parisian street. The door clicked open and its owner hobbled out clutching at his head. The man had short, untidy hair and 3 day old stubble; he was dressed in an odd blue leather jacket and pair of denim jeans. Certainly not the person Dorothée was expecting, she was sitting across the street on her bike after following the TARDIS through the time vortex and almost colliding with her a few times. The sun was high above the street that the man was standing on, it was no surprise that he couldn't see her.

Dorothée wondered to herself; was this man The Doctor, he didn't seem like a Doctor even the one's she had read about on the Inforarium. The man seemed too normal looking, almost fitting in with 21st century Paris. She was about to call out his name anyway but suddenly stopped when an idea popped into her head, what if this Doctor was in fact an earlier incarnation than the one she had travelled with. Dorothée meeting this younger Doctor would risk contaminating their time lines, which could do a lot of harm to both of their pasts. Dorothée was contemplating riding away and getting back to the task at hand when an English accent called out to her.

"Ace! Ace McShane, what are you doing here"

Dorothée looked up to see the man standing over her, she was so caught up in the laws of time that she had completely forgotten to keep track of him. Dorothée scrutinized the man's appearance up close, from his jeans to his jacket and finally his face and eyes.

"Professor?" She asked

The Doctor grinned an almost ratlike grin and nodded.

"You look different"

"I've regenerated since we last met" The Doctor explained

"I know that stupid but you just seem altogether different... I can't explain it"

The Doctor looked sheepishly away

"Time distortion attract you here as well?" he tried to change the subject

"Not really, the time distortion isn't originating from this decade, I just followed the TARDIS"

"Then where's the distortion originating from"

"About fifty years thataway"

Dorothée jabbed her thumb behind her head to give The Doctor a rough approximation.

"Ugh you know I've always been meaning to take that old ship of mine in for a service, shame the Time Lords don't offer freebies"

"Please, even if Romana herself offered to give the TARDIS a once over you wouldn't be comfortable with someone else touching your pride and joy"

"True, true but to the business at hand..."

"Hop on"

"Ah, no"

"Come on, if Time's Vigilante can't give Time's Champion a ride to a party what good is she, and anyway the TARDIS probably wouldn't be able to crack through the distortion"

The Doctor cast an apologetic look back at his craft before getting on the back of Dorothée's bike.

"Just like old times, Doctor"

"Except this time you're my ride into danger"

Dorothée let out a giggle before kicking the stop up and firing up the ignition.

"You better hold on tight, Doc she gets a little rowdy in the vortex"

"Oh well, don't want to throw stones in a glass house"

The Doctor gripped the leather seat with both hands as Dorothée revved the engine thrice and then finally accelerated. Dorothée rode her bike straight across the street and only one thing stood in her path, the TARDIS.

"Oh Ace" The Doctor meekly protested, knowing what was coming next.

Dorothée hit the controls on her time drive, a six foot portal of red swirly energy opened up in between the bike and the TARDIS and Dorothée drove straight through it.

Time winds and redy grey lightning collided with the bike as it rode through the vortex, The Doctor gripped the seat tighter.

"Place is going to the dogs" he complained

"It could go to worse, in the five years I've been Time's youknowwhat I've seen some of the worst scum in the universe just aching to achieve time travel"

"The worst already have it unfortunately"

A scarlet bolt of lightning collided with Dorothée's bike, slicing ever so slightly through the time shields that protected her and The Doctor from the vortex.

"This is going to be a bit rough" Dorothée warned

"I expected nothing less" The Doctor whined as yet another bolt of Time Energy smashed against the bike and widened the wound in the time shields

"Ace!" he screamed as another red portal enveloped them.


	3. Chapter 3

Camille Clément looked up at the Tower like she had every night since she left home. Camille was working as a waitress in one of the dirtiest restaurants in Paris. It paid her very little but every franc she earned went into her savings tin, which she hid under the floorboards of the room Monsieur Allard gave her in return for her silence in the matter of Madame Allard's current whereabouts. The old woman had taken off with a much younger man, leaving the crotchety old man feeling a mite lonely and bitter. Looking around, Camille realised the dark Parisian night didn't hold the same wonder and mystique as it did before she left home, now it felt cold and full of mistrust.

A bolt of bright blue lightning struck the Eiffel Tower, scaring the hell out of Camille and sending hundreds of sparks across the Champ de Mars. A persistent blue light then shone out from the observation deck near the top of the Tower. The light glowed strong and almost unnaturally, the shade of blue not one Camille had ever seen before.

A red wall of light then suddenly appeared across the street from where Camille was standing. The entrance of the newly built Méchant Loup book shop was completely covered in the mysterious red light. The sound of a man yelling some strange unpronounceable word preceded an unusual motorcycle seemingly appearing through the red light. It skidded to a halt as its riders took in their surroundings.

They were quite odd, the one at the front was a woman at least 10 years older than Camille and yet the garments she wore were something she'd expect to see on one of the privileged school girls that passed the restaurant at the weekend. The man had stubble and scruffy hair and generally looked like he hadn't slept in a week.

"November, 1963" The lady proclaimed before noticing the blue light emanating from the tower.

"That's not right" The man worried

"The source of the distortion?" The lady asked just as another strike of lightning hit the tower

"Quite probably"

The red light behind the two dimmed and disappeared before the two strangers then rode off in the direction of the tower. Camille was in awe, what had she just witnessed? Who where those strange people and what were they going to do. Camille didn't know but she did know where they were going. She took a last look up at the Tower before running across the road and borrowing a bicycle that belonged to someone she didn't know that well.

Dorothée and The Doctor closed in on the Eiffel Tower, they were currently riding across the Champ de Mars at considerable speed and The Doctor was still clutching onto the leather bike seat, determined not to let go.

"I suppose we'll be stopping soon" The Doctor queried as they neared one of the large metal legs on the structure

"No, why?" Dorothée asked playfully

"Because we'll..." But before The Doctor could utter another word, Dorothée had flicked a switch on her dashboard and the motorcycle was riding up one of the Eiffel Tower's large metal legs.

"Anti-Grav feature?" The Doctor enquired as he dug his fingernails into the bike seat.

"Came with this model, that I may or may not have liberated from a Gold Medallist"

"Never change Ace"

The motorcycle rode further up the Tower nearing the observation deck, as they approached it Dorothée flicked another switch and the front tire on the bike grew a set of spikes, yet still somehow remained inflated. The tyre collided with the feeble glass of the observation deck and the bike rode upward and landed softly onto the floor of the room. A bookcase stood before Dorothée and The Doctor, it glowed a bright shade of blue and numerous wires ran from it to the safety rails and even the floor.

The Doctor removed his sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket and scanned the bookcase.

"Is that a" Started Dorothée

"TARDIS" The Doctor finished "Yes, unfortunately it is"

"I think we have a good idea of who's behind this whole thing then"

"Really, who?"

"Chap with the rubbish beard or pizza face or tall, dark and handsome"

"Miss McShane, are you insinuating that The Master is behind this?"

"Yeah, couldn't really be more obvious, could it?"

"Oh I don't know, he could don a 300 pound fatsuit and call himself Retsam" said The Doctor as he replaced his screwdriver and strode up to the bookcase. He was about to knock when the outline of a door suddenly became visible, it opened leaving a sizable gap in the bookcase and two hands lunged toward The Doctor, grabbing furiously at his coat.

"Knew you would come!" Cried the old man who emerged from the bookcase, he slammed The Doctor against a nearby wall. The old man was wearing the clothing of a Victorian gentleman, he was bald, he had a long nose and a skinny face and he looked completely out of his mind. He stared at The Doctor with starving eyes and still grasped at his coat.

"When is this for you eh, the fall of Tsan?"

"Tsan?" The Doctor questioned

"Obviously not, The Eclipse of Monan?"

The Doctor looked confused, he didn't know who this strange man was but he certainly seemed to know him.

"You haven't experienced any of that, have you" The man giggled away to himself "These must be the days, weeks, or perhaps even months before you have to deal with all of that"

"I don't know who you are or what you're talking about, but if you release me we can have a nice little chat about it"

"Chat!" The man seemed outraged "Yes, that's what you used to do, in the days before it all went wrong"

"What went wrong?" The Doctor asked

"Everything!" The man's eyes lit up "And you, you sold us down the river, you have the audacity to call me a meddler"

The Doctor's eyes widened as he realised who the man was.

"You!" He spat

"Yes, me Doctor, I gave all my lives to put an end to this senseless destruction but now I realise all I ever had to do was take yours"

The man released one hand on The Doctor and grabbed a pocket knife out of his coat, he held it to The Doctor's chest.

"The Monk will go down in history as the Time Lord who prevented it all!"

The Monk suddenly stopped, a look of pain fell on his face as he let go of the knife and The Doctor and fell forward. The Doctor stepped out of the way as The Monk fell flat on his face. Dorothée holstered her 43rd Century Stunner.

"Nicely done" commented The Doctor as he checked The Monk's pulse

"What did he mean, prevent it all" Dorothée asked

"I don't know and I shouldn't know, this man comes from the future, maybe my future and his rants and raves might just endanger the Web of Time itself"

"Unweaving" The Monk cried to himself

"Is he a Time Lord?" Dorothée asked

The Doctor nodded "You once knew him as Mortimus"

"Dodgy record bloke in the 70s?"

"That's the one, seems he's regenerated"

"All gone" The Monk cried again

"So what do we do with him" Dorothée asked

"I think I have a Hypercube somewhere in my pocket, I'll assemble it and call the Time Lords to collect him"

"Time Lords?" The Monk worried

The Monk slowly got to his feet, wobbling slightly even when he did achieve it.

"That should've kept him down for hours" Dorothée complained

"Won't go back to the Time Lords"

"You have no choice in the matter" The Doctor said grimly

"Still could save reality, could kill you" The Monk stuttered as he hobbled forward, he broke into a run and attempted to rugby tackle The Doctor out the window that the bike had broken through. Dorothée went for her Stunner but The Doctor moved out of the way just in the nick of time as The Monk fell out the broken hole. The Doctor quickly grabbed the man's cold, skinny hand stopping him from falling.

"Even after all the death I caused in my life and all the death The Master and The Rani caused in theirs" The man trailed off "You surpassed all of us!" The Monk spat before clawing at The Doctor's hand with his nails. The Doctor quickly released his grip causing The Monk to fall off The Eiffel Tower.

The Monk had been telling the truth about his regeneration cycle, all his lives it seemed had been spent. The Doctor had waited with his body on the Champ de Mars for at least twenty minutes when a young woman on a bicycle rode up to him.

"Has there been an accident?" she asked

The Doctor closed his eyes

"Contact" He said and The Monk's body was enveloped by a white mist and faded away.

The Doctor opened his eyes and faced the girl

"No accident" He said and walked away leaving the girl even more confused than she was already.

The Doctor met Dorothée inside The Monk's TARDIS, which it seems was attracting some kind of devastating energy then channelling into the Time Vortex. Luckily The Doctor and Dorothée arrived in just enough time to stop it before the effects became permanent. Dorothée shut the conductors down just as The Doctor had finished writing a note in ancient Gallifreyan, which he stuck to the console.

"Was he a friend of yours Doctor?" Dorothée asked

"Once upon a time, I suppose"

"I'm sorry if I'm missing something but why don't you seem more cut up"

"He killed people, though not always intentionally, through his actions and stupidity countless innocent people have died, including a few very dear to me"

"That's why you're so different isn't it, you look like you've been through hell"

"The past few months haven't been so kind to me I agree"

"Nothing good could make a man wear blue leather"

The Doctor half-heartedly smiled before setting coordinates on The Monk's console.

"In five minutes this TARDIS will dematerialize and head to the big dimensionally transcendental graveyard in the sky, I don't think we should go along with it"

"I know a lovely little cafe near here, they make these little fairy cakes that taste absolutely brilliant, do good tea too"

"Miss McShane, are you asking me to lunch?"

"Only if you're buying Professor"

"I knew I shouldn't leave the TARDIS with money"

"Come along Doctor, we've got tea to drink"

The End


End file.
